The Dragon Academy
by eapl
Summary: Hiccup is desperate to be trained to ride his dragon Toothless, so desperate that he would sneak onto the Berserker islands to learn, there he meets plenty of new friends and a girl named Astrid. But as the peace treaty between Berk and the Berserkers becomes strained Hiccup learns that keeping secrets can come at a high price.
1. Chapter 1

"Why can't I?" I asked, my hand resting on Toothless's head, frustration written across my face.

My dad sighed as he rustled past me, quietly hanging his axe in place. "You know very well, why you can't, Hiccup, this isn't about you it's-"

"It's about the Berserkers."

"Son," He began calmly, clearly tired and in no mood for a fight. "We have a peace treaty with them; we can't show any signs that we're preparing for war, you know that."

"Learning how to fly dragons isn't exactly preparing for war." I insisted, my feet planted firmly on the ground.

"Well, to some it is." He lowered himself into his chair stiffly, and began poking at the fire with a pointed piece of wood.

I followed him to the fire pit and Toothless followed behind me nestling close to the fire. "I'm not asking for everyone in the village to be trained, just me."

He looked up at me with a frown. "Hiccup, as a leader you need to _lead_, you can't expect people to follow your rules if you don't follow them yourself."

I growled with frustration and turned away from him. "They're not _my_ rules, they're _your_ rules."

"Hiccup,"

"The Berserkers are training dragon riders."

"You don't know that."

"I do actually."

He looked up at me. "Have you been flying again?" There was a long pause and I didn't answer, instead I ducked my head desperately avoiding his burning eyes. "I told you, you shouldn't be riding that dragon, its wild."

"He's not wild, I've trained him." I stated boldly.

"But who's trained you? You don't know how to fly yet, you could've fallen into the sea and been washed away." His voice began to rise gradually.

"That's why I should be trained! " I exclaimed, stirring Toothless out of his stupor. "You say I can't fly unless I'm trained but you won't train me."

"Don't try to change the subject." He growled at me angrily. "You've been _spying _on the Berserkers, our peace treaty is shaky as it is, you should know better."

"No one knows what I look like; they wouldn't even know I was from Berk."

"Dagur knows, his men know."

"How many people is that? Twenty? Thirty?" I scoffed.

He roughly jabbed the stick into the fire. "That's not the point."

"Sure it is."

"No it's not."

"I think it is."

"It's not!" He roared flying out of his chair, his full height looming over me like I was nothing. Toothless twitched and looked up at us confused and surprised by the sudden outburst. "This is serious, we're not playing games here, do you want to start a war over, over a dragon?"

I turned to leave and muttered. "You can't let me have this one thing, can you? You know how long I've waited, you told me to wait until I was eighteen, so I did."

"This isn't about you!"

I opened my mouth, but thought against it and stormed upstairs, with eyes red from anger and Toothless following close behind me. My rage fueled me more than anything and I slammed the door behind me, quickly lighting a candle and crouching down at the foot of my bed. I roughly pulled a box out from underneath the bed and dug out a rolled up map. With a candle in one hand and the map in the other I sat with my back up against the door and unravelled it, on it was a map of the Berserker islands. My eyes darted across the map and I stared at the smallest island of them all, the islands label read;

"The Berserker Dragon Academy Island?" A buff guy with dark hair reeled. "Yeesh, they couldn't think of something shorter?"

A fat blonde stood beside him. "It was probably Dagur who thought it up, " There was a short pause. "Uh, don't quote me on that."

"Whatever, let's just, " His eyes shot towards me. "Who the heck are you? I've never seen you before."

I swallowed hard. "I, uh, I don't live on the main island."

"Neither do we." The fat one replied.

"Or the other main island." I choked out quickly.

"Oh, so you're like, a fisherman's kid?" The dark haired one laughed. "You two might get along, huh, _Fish_legs."

I looked at him blankly. "_Hilarious_."

"I guess you know now, but I'm Fishlegs. This is Snotlout."

"Hiccup." They both gave me a puzzled expression. "That's my name."

"Right, I knew that." Snotlout snorted, slapping me on the back. "Witch dragon is yours?" he asked gesturing towards the dragon perches off to the side of the school. "Mine is the red Monstrous Nightmare! Pretty cool right?"

"Uh, mine is the black one, at the bottom." I said rubbing my tender shoulder.

Fishlegs gasped. "A Night Fury?"

"A nigh-what?" Snotlout asked scowling. "Sounds lame."

"No, it's extremely rare, I heard you could only get them off Berk." He gazed up at it with wide eyes. "Where did you get him?"

I cleared my throat awkwardly. "Well, uh, my brother found him so..."

"Ruff! Tuff!" Snotlout called out, walking off into the school.

"Can I meet him?"

"He's on a fishing trip," I blurted. "A really long one."

"Too bad." Fishlegs said sounding disappointed. "Another time maybe, my dragon is the Gronckle by the way, her name is Meatlug."

"Pretty name." I remarked. "Ever taken her for a ride?"

"Well, were not supposed to until we're fully trained, but we all do anyway." He nudged me, and a smiled back.

"I think I'm going to like it here." I said to him as we walked into the school. The class room was messy as I had expected and the desks were shabby and old, but I couldn't be more exited. Then, when I looked to see the other students in the class I saw a blonde girl sitting in the front row quietly sharpening an axe on her desk. She a pretty, really really pretty, I could feel my cheeks heat up and I quickly averted my eyes and turned to Fishlegs. "Who's that?"

"Oh, Astrid?" Fishlegs said. "I wouldn't try, plenty of guys have already tried and most of them got more than a good clobbering."

"Her boyfriend?" I asked.

He let out a squeaky laugh. "You wish, no, she doesn't carry that axe for nothing. C'mon." Fishlegs and I took two seats off to the right and the teacher hobbled in.

"Welcome to the dragon academy." He said through his thick Scottish accent. "I'm Gobber and I will be your instructor during the time you will be staying here, if you past the test at the end of the training you will receive the official Berserker badge of flying!"

The rest of class went rather uneventfully as expected of the first day, the whole while I couldn't stop staring at the back of Astrid's head, even her back was pretty. As I exited class Fishlegs approached me, "Hey, some of the kids from class are going to go fly to the east Berserker river, wanna come?"

"On the second main land? I don't know."

He nudged me with his arm. "Astrid's coming."

Ignoring my better judgement I went along to the river, and I'm ashamed to say I'm glad. I never had many friends on Berk and I had never done anything so rebellious, it felt good to be bad.

"Hey, it's Astrid, right?"

"Who's asking?" She said with out turning to look at me, as she continued to skip stones, or rather fail at skipping stones.

I scratched the back of my head. "I'm, Hiccup, from class." glanced at what little I could see of her face. "You need to snap your wrist."

She turn to her look at me. "What?"

"Your wrist. " I said picking up a rock and pretending to throw it. "You need to snap it, see?" I skipped the stone five times and I felt a breath of relief that it skipped as far as it did.

Astrid smiled. "Not bad, snap my wrist, I'll try it, thanks." She began to gather more rocks. "You're not from around here are you?"

"What makes you think that?" I asked nervously.

"I've never seen you before, you from one of the smaller islands?"

I nodded. "My dad is a fisherman."

"And the Night Fury? That one yours?" She stood up to face me and brushed the bangs off her face.

"Yeah." I replied sheepishly.

She continued trying to skip stones. "I've never seen one before, he's amazing."

"Do you, you know, want to go for a ride?" I suggested shrugging.

She smiled at me. "You'd let me?"

"Of course."

"Thanks, can you watch my Nadder while I'm gone?" She said as she climbed onto of Toothless.

"Wait, I thought-" Toothless looked at me and I nodded to him, and he flew off, I sighed and flopped down onto the ground.

Fishlegs walked over and sat beside me. "Tough luck buddy."

"Well," I began. "She didn't punch me."

**Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it, please tell me if you found something confusing or any complaints or mistakes you think I should work on, thanks again!**


	2. Chapter 2

Everyone seemed uncomfortable in their leather armor, but I felt rather comfortable, it wasn't as tight fitting on me probably due to my slim physique.

"Is this really necessary?" Snotlout complained.

Fishlegs was by far the most uncomfortable. "I think it's cutting off my circulation." He gurgled pulling at the tight collar.

Gobber cleared his throat and place his hands on his hips, well hand and hook. "Listen up, we're going to fly today and we need proper protection in case there is an accident. Now, we're going to have pairs of two so if one person falls off their dragon the other can catch them, got it?"

The Twins had already partnered up and most of the guys, including Snotlout no doubt wanted to be Astrid's partner.

"Go ask her." Fishlegs urged.

"I thought you said I'd get clobbered."

"Yeah." He nodded. "But I don't think that's going to stop you. Plus, she's probably already punched most of those guys anyway."

I took in a breath and walked over. "Astrid, uh, you wanna partner up?"

Looking rather tired and annoyed she seemed almost relived that I had asked. "I thought you'd never ask." Once the small crowd around her had dispersed I started to appreciate the tight uniforms a lot more, and I smiled to myself. "Thanks for that." she sighed. "They drive me crazy."

"Who, men?"

"Men who have crushes on me, they make it so obvious."

"Right, crushes, obvious." I muttered awkwardly. I noticed her axe strapped tightly to the back of her Nadder's saddle. "Do you bring that everywhere?"

"Generally." She smiled. "You never know right?"

"Good thing you're my partner, I forgot mine at home."

She laughed as she climbed onto her dragon. "Can you even pick an axe up? Your arms probably have the consistency of wet noodles."

"Ouch." I said hold my hands to my heart and pretending to be hurt.

Gobber called out. "Alright, lets have a clean slow flight around the island and back, remember, this is not a race, no extra points for getting back first."

Astrid and I took off into the sky and slowly around the island over the sea. I instantly felt great and I took deep breaths of fresh air. "Don't you just love flying?" I asked.

"I love it." She agreed. "You feel so free."

"I know, sometimes I feel like it's the only time I'm free." I sighed. "My dad always-" I stopped suddenly remembering where I was.

"Hey, you can talk about your dad." Astrid said. "I won't tell him." She smiled at me.

"He just never listens to anything I say, it's as if anything I say go's in one ear and out the other." I shook my head. "I'm eighteen and he's still trying to dictate everything in my life."

"What, is he forcing you to be a fisherman?"

"Uh, not exactly." I said. "But he certainly didn't want me to come here to learn how to fly."

We curved around and landed back onto the roof of the school, and she quickly dismounted. "Well, either way, I don't think you're boring enough to be a fisherman."

I laughed. "Good to hear."

Ruffnut and Tuffnut ran up from behind Astrid and grabbed her arm. "Hey we're going down to the forest with the gang, you've got to come, I need more wolf pelt for a new pair of boots." Tuffnut said excitedly.

"Yeah, and Snotlout said he would catch one for you himself." Ruffnut said.

Astrid turned to me. "You coming?"

"I don't really know how to hunt."

"I can show you." She said smiling. God, I can't tell if she honestly doesn't know what she does to me or if she's secretly using it against me, but either way there is no way I could say no after that.

"I guess I can try."

We rode our dragons down to the dark woods where everyone seemed to have a bow except for me. Astrid turned to look at me. "You want to borrow my bow?" She asked.

I blushed from embarrassment. "I, uh, I don't know how to use a bow."

"Really?" She asked, surprised.

"My dad always tried to keep me in the house."

She laughed. "Well there's a first time for everything I guess, try shooting that tree." She urged.

"Teach him later Astrid, I want to catch a wolf." Snotlout growled. "If he couldn't shoot a bow he shouldn't have come."

Astrid crossed her arms. "I invited him, you guys can go hunting but I'm going to stay here and teach Hiccup."

"Let's go Snotlout." Ruffnut said. "We can meet up with them later."

Snotlout grumbled but he wandered off with the rest of the group. I turned to look at Astrid, and she's still staring forward, watching them walk off. "Sometimes he can be a real jerk." She turned to me. "Let's prove 'em wrong, I'm sure we can get a wolf before them, what do you think?"

I squirm a little. "Maybe _you_ can, I'm not so sure about us."

"Look" She gestures off to the right. "There are some tracks right there, let's go!" Astrid bolts and I scramble to catch up with her. She darts up a tree and helps me up, there we crouch and I see her staring forward.

"What are you looking at?" I whisper.

She puts her hand on my cheek and pushes it as she points forward. Resting and hidden is a small young wolf a yard away deeply covered behind a few bushes. "You think I can get it?" She whispers into my ear and I shiver. I turn to face her, our faces barely an inch apart, and I nod. She silently pulls out and arrow and aims it with her bow. I stare at the small wolf and wait in agonizing suspense, then before I even knew what had happen the arrow had already shot throw the air and pierced the wold right in the chest with a yelp.

Astrid cried. "Got it!" she climbed out of the tree and ran over to the wolf, pulling out the arrow. I jumped out after her and looked down at the dead wolf. "That's amazing." I comment.

She smiles at me. "You want to try? you can use the lucky arrow" She says waving the bloody arrow. "Try hitting that stump over there."

I turn and scan for the stump. "Are you kidding? I can barely see it."

"Because I had a perfect view of the wolf." She said smirking at me with her hands on her hips. Another yelp is heard from the small wolf. "Jeez, I think it's still alive." Astrid grabs her axe from her back and with a strong thwack she decapitates it.

"Poor wolf."

Astrid sighs. "It happens, that's why it's better to hit the head, it's not always an option though." She looked up from the wolf and gestured with her head towards the stump. "Go ahead."

I take the arrow from her hand and carefully aim the bow. "Don't hold it like that." Astrid then starts to move my hands and fingers into the correct positions, my heart thumps from her touch and I take a deep breath after she moves back. "Alright, I think you're good, try it out."

I stared forward and wiggled the bow around trying to aim is properly, then I saw a wolf not to far from the stump, and not a small wolf either, a big wolf, a _really_ big wolf. I froze like a stunned animal staring out at the wolf.

"Are you going to aim all day?" Astrid laughed. I slowly lowered the bow and glance around for a easily climbable tree, nothing. "Are you alright?"

"There's a wolf." A whispered.

"What?" She furrowed her eye brows. A low growling began to rumble from the wolf.

Astrid gasped. "It's the mother, she must have heard the other wolf." She reached over slowly and put a hand on my shoulder. "Give me the bow."

"There isn't enough time."

"Give me the bow."

I handed her the bow, then the arrow, but before she could even pull back the string the wolf sprinted forward impossibly fast. "Astrid, run!" I cried out. The wolf lunged at Astrid and she blocked it's jaws with the bow. I stumbled backwards and grabbed a fallen branch off of the ground and leaped towards the wolf hitting it's back with the branch. It growled and turned towards me scratching and biting. "Call the dragons." I manage to call out through grunts.

Astrid whistles for the dragons then pulls her axe off of the ground and run towards me, "Get it on the ground!" I push the wolf off to the side with the last of my strength and with another thwack the second wolf head comes off. "You're bleeding." She says between gasps.

"I hadn't noticed." I say sarcastically, lying on the forest ground heaving breathlessly. She starts to laugh and I laugh along with her. "I don't know about the other guys, but we got two wolves and a pretty good story to tell."

She gaps for air between bouts of laughter. "Don't," gasp "Make me," gasp "Laugh." Her laughter dies down and she crawls over to where I've lying and she gently touches the cuts and scrapes the wolf inflicted.

I wince. "Ow."

"Sorry," She smiles at me and melt under her touch. "Thanks for not letting it eat me."

I chuckle. "Thanks for not letting it eat _me_."

She slowly lifts her self up from the ground and looks around, from above the trees Toothless and Stromfly perch on the surrounding trees. "The trees are too thick, they can't land here." Astrid kneels down beside me and holds a hand out to help me up. "There should be a river near by, we can wash your wounds and catch a ride home afterwards."

"Don't make me get up." I groan.

Astrid sighs with a smile. "Look, once we get to the river you can lie down all you want," I shut my eyes in defiance. "You can't be very comfortable,"

"Actually,"

"You can use my lap as a pillow."

My eyes snapped open so fast they nearly popped out their sockets. "You are persuasive." I grin weakly, and grab Astrid's outstretched hand and slowly lifted myself up. We didn't walk long, and by the time we reached the river i wasn't nearly as tired as had been, but I still took advantage of my promised pillow. Thor is good, I didn't think one of the best days of my life would involve being attacked by a wolf but there are few things better than lying in Astrid's lap while she clean your wounds.

"Witch one do you want?"

I opened one of my eyes to look up at her. "What do you mean?"

"Witch wolf do you want? I figure after all this you should get first pick."

"You should keep them both, you killed them after all."

Astrid shook her head. "I can't do that, not after what I put you through."

I rose from her lap and turn to look at her face. "Actually, I had a lot of fun," I swallowed. "You know,"

"There they are!"

We both turned and saw Snotlout running towards us followed by Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and lagging behind, Fishlegs.

"We caught two turkeys and a wolf!" Snotlout shouted proudly.

Tuffnut looked at me. "Whoa what happened to your face?"

Fishlegs breathing heavily looked up and glance over to Astrid. "She didn't-"

"It was the wolf Fishlegs." She said rolling her eyes and pointing towards the two dead wolves lying in a pile by the river.

"You guys caught two wolves?" Ruffnut asked looking down at the dead wolves. "That was fast."

Astrid looked up at the sky. "You guys should call your dragons, the sun is going down, and it's going to be chilly tonight."

"Chilly tonight isn't it?"

The door shut behind me with a soft thud and a growled. "Dad, hey"

"Where have you been? It's already dark out." He said angrily getting up from his seat by the fire pit.

"I think I can see that, thanks."

His eyes widened and he grabbed a candle and held it to my face. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

"This is not nothing, Hiccup." He yelled angrily. "You're gone most of the day and you come back covered in scars. Have you been flying?"

"You think I got this while flying?" I asked curtly.

He slammed the candle down onto the table. "I don't know where you got them, but it can't be good."

"I got it from hunting."

"You don't know how to hunt."

"Clearly."

"Hiccup!"

"What do you want from me? I went hunting." I dug the wolf out from my bag and threw it onto the ground, then hurried upstairs.


	3. Chapter 3

"You look better today." Astrid says, I look up from my desk and find her turned around and facing me.

I blush. "What?"

"Your face," She comments. "I think it's looking better, does it still hurt?"

"Oh." I let out a small laugh. "Yeah, the cuts weren't that deep, the wolf mostly scratched up my chest. Luckily I was the only one who kept my leather armor on after class."

Astrid's eyes dip down to my chest for a split second. "Is that why your still wearing it now?"

I shake my head. "I just fly a lot."

"Did you guys hear about the tree?" Fishlegs whispers to us, we turn to look at her. "After we went hunting, Ruffnut and Tuffnut came a across these huge trees in the forest, we're going to check them out after class."

"No way." Astrid says sounding exited. "What are you guys going to do with them?"

Fishlegs shrugs. "Who knows."

"You cannot be serious." Astrid exclaims looking up, wide eyed at the monstrous trees. The trees are impossibly thick, if all five of us daisy chained together we probably still wouldn't be able to circle one of them once. "Look how tall they are!"

"How many of them are there?" I ask looking around at the family of enormous trees.

Fishlegs glances right, then left. "Not sure, twenty maybe?"

"Who cares how many there are, it's too many to count anyway." Snotlout groans. "Let's see who can find the biggest one!" He says stretching his arms out to signify largeness.

"How are we supposed to measure them?" Astrid asks skeptically. "In arm length?"

"No," Tuffnut scoffs. "Obviously in double arm length." He outstretches both his arms similar to Snotlout.

Ruffnut punches her brother in the arm. "There's no way that'll work, idiot."

"Yeah," I nod in agreement. "In case you haven't noticed, we all have different arm lengths."

Snotlout slaps his forehead. "Whatever, just find a tree claim it, then we can measure it with my arms later."

"You heard the man." Astrid says hooking arms with me and briskly walking deeper into the forest.

I blush and look over to her. "I thought we're competing against each other."

"Nobody said we couldn't have an alliance." She says to me smirking. "I've got to protect you in case your attacked by another wolf."

I chuckled. "Gee thanks."

"Here's a big one." She says excitedly running over to a large tree completely surrounded by tall shrubs. "It'll be hard to measure with all these bushes." Astrid begins to rustle through the shrubs, inspecting the base of the tree. I look up and watch as Toothless and Stormfly jump over top the tall trees and slowly fly down through a small clearing and land a few meters away from me. Toothless tackles and starts to lick my face.

I laugh and push his head away. "Stop, hey, Toothless!"

"Hiccup! Come here!" Astrid suddenly calls out to me. "You have to see this!"

Toothless backs off of me and I stand up wiping the slobber off of my clothes. "What is it?"

"Shhh, just come here!" She insists.

I chuckled at her urgency. "Alright, alright, I'm coming." I find her squatting on the far side of the tree holding the shrubs apart and staring at lies behind it. I hurry to see what she's looking at and I see a hole, a large hole, right at the bottom of the tree. "Is that-?"

"It's huge," Astrid says softly. "Stromfly probably couldn't fit, but I think it's big enough for even Toothless."

"What's inside?" I ask.

Astrid grabs her axe from off of the ground and start crawling into the tree. "Let's find out."

"Wait," I pull on her arm and look at her with a concerned expression. "You don't know what could be in there."

She smiles. "You don't have to worry about me, I can take care of myself. Besides, I've got my axe." I release her arm reluctantly and quickly climb in after her, Toothless behind me. The inside is tighter than I expected, and also brighter, there are small holes all over the tree trunk and small steams of light pour in from them, lighting up the inside. "This is amazing!" Astrid exclaims.

The walls of the inside were bumpy and rough, Astrid began to climb up along the bumps and ridges. "What are you going to do with this place?" I ask looking up at her.

"We should build a fort or something." Astrid suggests continuing to climb. "Are you any good at building? I could bring some wood and-" Her foot suddenly slipped as she got to the more narrow part of the tree.

"Astrid, come down!" I call out.

She hung by her hands, dangling a good fifteen feet off of the ground. "You think?" She grunts trying to pull her feet back onto the inner walls of the tree.

I watch anxiously as she struggles and as her fingers slip from their grip, I cry out. "Toothless catch her!" Toothless jumped into the air and spread his wings as far as he could in the tight space, he caught her on his back and wings, landing roughly back on the ground causing a gust of wind that pushed me onto the ground. "Did you get her?" I groaned lifting myself off of the ground.

"He got her." Astrid said sitting up on Toothless's back. "We definitely need a ladder or something, maybe we could build a platform up at the top."

I stood rubbing my back. "I don't know about building, but I can forge metal."

"Ooh, a fisherman _and_ a blacksmith." She teased, jumping off of Toothless's back. "What do you think?"

I looked up the inside of the tree. "Maybe we should make another opening at the top, so we can get to the higher branches."

Astrid smiled slapping me on the back roughly. "That's great! I can bring the tools and the wood, you want to start tomorrow?"

"Sure, but won't the guys want to come too?"

She laughed as she climbed back out of the tree. "Who says we need to tell them?"

I smiled to myself and followed quickly behind her has we headed towards the sounds of the other chatting amongst each other. As we approached them I found Ruffnut leaning up against a tree looking rather bored while the guys crowded around a dark haired girl. I didn't recognize her from the academy, but she seemed to be hitting it off with the guys.

"Took you guys long enough." Ruffnut commented.

Astrid looked over at the dark haired girl. "Who's the new girl?"

"Apparently she lives near by, I think she said she moved here recently or something." Ruffnut growled. "It was hard getting anything out of her with nerd, dumb and dumber over there."

Astrid chuckled and turned to me. "Let's go greet her, she looks around our age, maybe she's going to join the academy."

I nod and we walk over them. The girl immediately looks over to us a smiles. "I'm Heather, you must be from the Academy."

"Yeah, I'm Astrid and this is Hiccup." Astrid says. "Are you going to join as well?"

"No, Heather has other duties at home." Fishlegs says almost making is sound like a tragedy.

Tuffnut laughs. "Heh, _duties_."

"Too bad." Astrid says. "There aren't many girl learning how to fly these days."

"Whelp, Astrid and I have a lot of work to do, sooo." I nudge her with my arm and she smiles at me.

She nods "Yep, so tomorrow after school we're going to be busy working."

"Busy with what?" Snotlout asks crossing his arms.

She glances over at me then says to Snotlout while shrugging. "A project."

We smile at each other and walk fly, things are starting to look up for once.

The days following were great, I spent most of my time learning how to fly or helping Astrid build a fort inside of our tree. Occasionally we would hang out with Heather and the gang, sometimes going hunting or racing our dragons. it was the first time I felt like I was part of something, they were my first friends and it felt great to belong with them. But Astrid, Astrid was something else, it didn't matter what we were doing, it could be the most boring thing, like studying for a test, or sawing wood for the fort but everything I did with her was exiting and new. Just being around her felt amazing, and if there was anywhere that I belonged it was with her.

Once the fort had been finished, it looked great, from the outside it was merely a tree, but on the inside it had ladder and platforms and even a small pit at the bottom for a fire. Astrid left blankets and a bow inside, in case she ever wanted to go hunting and we had carved open a large hole at the top so we could fly our dragons into the thick branches and climb in from the top.

Sometime the fort felt more like my home than my real home did, I avoided my father desperately and sometimes I would go days with out catching a glimpse of him, but honestly, it almost didn't seem to matter. Any problem I had would be instantly washed away with one visit to my fort with Astrid.


	4. Chapter 4

I came downstairs early and started preparing to go to class, I packed up some fruit and bread into my bag. When I turn to leave my stood at the foot of the stairs, he didn't look happy. "Sleep well?"

"Listen, Hiccup, we need to talk."

"Oh, goody."

"This is serious." He warned.

I sighed and sat down at the table. "Alright, what is it."

He lumbered over to me. "I've been hearing certain things about the Berserkers lately." I swallowed nervously but let him continue. "As it seem, you were right all along, I own you an apology."

I blinked. "Wait, what?"

"You were right about the Berserkers, they have been training people to fly dragons." He sighed. "I've hear that there is a possibility that they have also been secretly training their soldiers how to fight using dragons." I found myself at a loss for words. "Since this seems to be true I think it's only fair that you get your wish."

"My wish?" I choked out.

"I'll put you into dragon flight training."

"Oh, right, uh, actually, dad, the thing is..." I stumbled over my words desperately trying to think of an excuse, any excuse. "Thanks, but no thanks."

"This is what you wanted isn't it?" He said angrily. "Why would you just change your mind?"

I stood from the table. "I don't need to justify myself, I'm going to be late."

"Late for what?" He roared after me.

"For hunting." I spat back as I stormed out of the house and flew away on Toothless.

I could feel my heart beating out of my chest as I flew off to the academy. I didn't know if I could hide it from my dad much longer and I wasn't sure what I would do if he were to find out. Would he still be able to see Astrid? Suddenly a new fear flooded into me, what if Astrid found out, would she be upset? Sad? Furious? He swallowed hard at the thought of Astrid's full anger directed towards him. My heart started to pound even harder and beads of sweat began to form on my head.

"Are you okay Hiccup?"

My head shot up and I saw Astrid looking at me with a concerned expression. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"Are you okay? You look awful." She said touching my fore head.

"Gee thanks."

She frowned at me. "Come on, I'm serious here, you're sweating everywhere."

I took a deep breath of the wind air that whipped past us as we stood on the roof of the school. "I'm alright, just stressing out."

"About class?" She asked

"Nah, family stuff, not important." I brushed it off. "Let's go." I climbed up on top of Toothless and leached on.

"Hey, if you're not feeling so good, I'm sure Gobber won't force you to take this training exercise." Astrid urged, she obviously didn't want me to participate.

I shook my head. "No, I'm fine, it's really not that big of a deal. Besides, if I'm not here you'll have to partner up with Snotlout." Astrid didn't seem to be in a laughing mood. "Trust me, alright."

She reluctantly nodded and mounted Stormfly. "You can tell me anything, you know that right?" She asked.

"Of course." I lied through my teeth, and it felt bad. Really bad. I know I had lied before, but suddenly became so apparent to me and the disgusting feelings of guilt engulfed me. I didn't deserve her trust, I wish I knew what her reaction would be because not knowing was the scariest part.

After class I went along with the gang to the beach for appearances sake even though I didn't really feel like going.

"You're down today." Heather commented sitting down beside me on the sand. "Did you break up with your girlfriend?"

I sighed. "She's not my girlfriend." I glanced over to Astrid who was also cautiously looking in my direction. "It's just family stuff, nothing important."

"There isn't really anyone I can talk to."

"You can talk to me."

"Because we're so close." I said sarcastically.

Heather chuckled. "Well it's better than just bottling it all up."

"Do you think it's better to lie to someone, or tell them the truth and risk losing them?"

"You can't lose a family member."

"Just answer the question."

She brushed a piece of hair away from her face. "I think you should tell them the truth, you might be surprised." Her gaze floated over to my face. "If she gives you up over a lie, she wasn't worth it in the first place."

I sprung up from the ground. "You're wrong."

"Hiccup-"

"You don't know what you're talking about." I felt angry. Maybe not at Heather, but mostly at myself. I ran towards Toothless and climbed onto his back.

Astrid quickly ran up and took my hand into hers "What's wrong Hiccup? ! can't help you if you don't tell me." She urged me. "I just want to help."

Her kindness only made me feel worse and I pulled my hand back. "I'm sorry, I just need sometime to think by myself."

With that, I flew off into the sky and returned home. To my surprise, my dad wasn't home, but I was glad, the last thing I needed was more confrontation or another fight. I got something to eat, and fed Toothless, but my unease grew. Once the sun have gone down I shut my bedroom door hoping my dad would think I was asleep and I went outside for a walk to clear my head.

It was nice out and I started to feel more relaxed when I heard two familiar voices faintly. I looked around but there was no one in sight, as I continued walking, a saw down by the sheep's stables my dad and Heather speaking to each other discreetly. My heart pounded and I ducked behind a shrub, the only spoke for a few more moment then my dad departed, making his way back to the house.

Heather caught sight of me.

I near fainted when I notice her eyes suddenly on me, she walked over her expression becoming more and more concerned. "What are you doing here?" She asked as soon as she was in range to whisper at me.

"I should be asking you that." I snapped back. "I've never seen you around Berk before."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "You live here?"

"What was your first clue?"

"Then what are you doing on the Berserker islands?" Heather asked.

I huffed. "Going to flight training, what's your excuse?"

She looked around then grabbed my arm. "We can't talk here, follow me." Heather dragged me away and into the sheep's stable. "Look, I know this looks bad but you can't tell anyone about this."

"If you think I'm going to-"

"Just let me explain." She interjected. "That was the Chief of Berk."

"I know who it was."

"He hired me to spy on the Berserkers for him, and no one can know until I've fully investigated." She explained in a hushed tone.

"Because hanging out with a bunch of teenagers is really productive." I scoffed.

Heather sighed. "That was a distraction, I need to fit in as a normal kid or it might be suspicious. Why do you think I didn't join the academy, I needed enough time to do my work."

"Alright, I believe you." I gave in. "But you can't tell my dad."

"Your dad? I don't even know who your dad is." She said. "Wait, is that the person you were talking about? The person you were lying to?"

I nodded awkwardly. "Yeah."

"So it wasn't Astrid," Heather said. "I guess I owe you an apology."

I scratched the back of my head. "Uh, don't tell the Chief either. If he finds out he'll just tell my dad and, well,"

"No, I get it." Heather nodded. "But you have to tell your dad someday."

"Someday.."


	5. Chapter 5

"So what's the lesson today?" Heather asked as I un-clipped myself from Toothless's saddle. "You're early."

I rose an eyebrow at her. "And you don't go to this school, what are you doing here?"

She shrugged nonchalantly. "I had some spare time, thought I'd pay you a visit."

"You might want to make it fast, the guys will be here soon."

She laughed awkwardly. "I'd don't really mind all that much."

There was a uncomfortable silence and we stood silently for a moment. "Seriously, why are you here?" I asked staring straight at her.

"I'm worried about you."

"I said I would tell him eventually."

"Not that..." She trailed off. "Not just that, Hiccup, how long are you planning on doing this?"

I chuckled. "Doing what?"

"You know what I mean." She said darkly. "Sneaking off, pretending you're a Berserker."

My smile instantly dropped. "It's complicated."

"Do you need to fly that badly?" I didn't answer. "Look, I shouldn't be telling you this, but," Heather paused looking distressed.

"What?" I urged her.

"War is going to break out, I can feel it," She nervously looked around. "The chief is furious, he's been trying to be diplomatic, but, I don't think the Berserkers are interested in peace anymore. If someone finds out,"

"I can't just leave."

Heather stops dead in her tracks, shock written across her face. "How can you say that? You could be captured, or worse, killed on the spot, we don't know what the Berserkers are planning."

"Don't call them Berserkers like we don't know any of them." I snapped.

Heather furrowed her brows. "Is that was this is about? You can't get attached to them, you're going to get yourself killed." She put a hand on my arm. "Hiccup, I care about you, I'm telling you this for your own good."

"I know, it's just," I waver. "I'll figure it out, alright."

The sound of footsteps and a familiar voice. "Figure what out?" Astrid says, a hand on her hip. The gang all behind her chattering amongst each other.

I quickly rip my arm out of Heathers grasp. "Nothing important."

"What are you doing here Heather?" Astrid asks.

Heather glances to me then looks back at Astrid. "I just needed to return something to him." She grabs a book out of her bag and shoves it into my hands. "Thanks." She says quickly before leaving. I nod nervously at Astrid before quickly putting the book into one of the pouches attached to Toothless's saddle.

We suit up for class and as we're mounting out dragons Astrid turns to me. "So, you and Heather seem to be rather chummy lately."

I scratch the back of my head. "It's not what you think, I just bumped into her near my house a couple days ago."

"I didn't think anyone visited the fishing islands."

"Well, I was surprised too." I chuckled. "I almost didn't think it was her."

Astrid latched onto Stormfly and secured her axe. "What book did you lend her?"

"Who knows, I've forgotten already."

"Did you hear about Berk?"

My head shot up. "What about Berk?"

"You didn't hear? Apparently the peace treaty has been officially removed." She said. "I don't know if there's going to be a war, or what, but I guess once an enemy, always an enemy."

I swallowed nervously. "When was this announced?"

"Uuum," Astrid paused in thought. "I think it was official this morning, it might have been last night."

I stormed into the kitchen. "Dad!"

He turned, "You're home early."

"Did you not think it was important to tell me that we were going to war with the Berserkers?" I yelled angrily.

He stood and frowned at me. "You're barely home long enough for me to exchange one word to you. How would you expect me to tell you about this?" He sighed. "Besides, we're not at war, the peace treaty is just suspended."

"Not from what I heard."

He eyed me suspiciously. "And who did you you hear it from?"

"Does it matter?" I growled at him. "And you can be a real hypocrite, you know?"

"What are you talking about?

I couldn't contain my anger, and immediately regretted what had said. "You yell at me for so called 'spying' on the Berserkers when all along you had hired your own spy."

My dad looks at he, astonished. "Where did you hear that?"

I freeze. "Nowhere." I quickly respond.

"Where did you hear that!" He yells louder, and tries to grab my arm but I quickly back away.

"Are we going to have a war?" I ask softly.

He stares at me. "Yes."

I feel a stinging hard lump in my throat and before I knew it I had run off, mounted Toothless and flown away. I headed straight towards the Berserker islands, I didn't know where else to go, and I forced my tears back. The situation had gone from bad to worse, I wanted to talk to Astrid, I wanted her to comfort me but I couldn't even tell her what was going on. Toothless could tell something was wrong, as we flew his eyes would glance up at me with worry. I went to the only place I knew I could, the tree fort, I climbed in from the top and lay down with Toothless exhausted both emotionally and physically.

I felt distressed and lonely, even though I was uneasy about it, I climbed out of the tree, leaving Toothless to his sleep, and went off to find Astrid. I knew vaguely where her house was and I desperately needed to feel normal again. I wandered through the dark until I notice a house crudely painted blue with the name 'Hofferson' carved into it. I crept around the back and found Stormfly in a small shed, she began to make exited noses at me, as she rubbed against me.

"Stormfly! Hush!" I heard from an open window.

My breath caught in my throat for a moment and I felt like I couldn't speak. I managed to choke out an, "Astrid."

There was a soft gasp, then some rustling and a the sound of feet harshly hitting against the ground, Astrid appeared at the door of the shed. "Hiccup? What are you doing here?"

"I just," I let out a ragged breath. "I fought with my dad, I ran away." I looked at her shocked expression. "I'm sorry, I didn't know where else to go."

Astrid shook her head and approached me. "Of course, but we can't stay here, my parents will freak out."

"Toothless is sleeping in the fort." I looked at her face, she looked concerned. "I'll just go back,"

She grabbed my hand as I walked past her to leave. "I always wake up before my parents." She said blushing. "I can stay with you, if you'd rather not be alone."

I felt a flood of relief. "That would be great."

Astrid engulfed me into a huge hug. "I don't know what's going on with you right now, Hiccup, but I want you to know that I'm here for you."

I hugged her back. "I'm sorry for being selfish."

"What are you talking about?" Asked pulling back. "Did your dad tell you that? You're not selfish."

I sighed, my heart aching. "Astrid," I couldn't do it, I wanted to tell her the truth but the words clogged in my throat, refusing to come out.

"What is it?"

"Just, don't hate me."

She gave me a confused smile. "Where is this coming from?" I didn't say anything, instead I stared at the ground, ashamed of my weakness. "I could never hate you, Hiccup."

I looked up at her for a breif moment. "Promise?"


	6. Chapter 6

I woke that morning feeling refreshed and well rested, the fire had burned out and Astrid was still fast asleep curled up beside me with her head resting on Toothless's stomach. I smiled at her calm sleeping expression, but soon the warm feelings were violently rushed out as reality flooded into my groggy head.

_I hadn't told her._

My sleepiness had almost fooled me into thinking I had, that she had been extremely forgiving and wasn't angry in the slightest. I laughed bitterly, I knew it could never be true. The night had been long and we talked all night, for a short while I wasn't worrying about the secrets that I had surrounded myself with. Astrid stirred, and her eyes slowly opened, and looked up at me.

"Is my sleeping face ugly or something?" She asked softly shutting her eyes with a smile.

I blushed and turned my gaze away from her. "Sorry."

"Well?"

"Not at all." My blush deepened. "It's beautiful." I waited in agonizing silence for her reply but it didn't come, and when I turned to look at her she shuffled in her sleep and mumbled incoherently. I let out an exasperated sigh. "Wake up, Astrid." I shook her and noticed that the sun was up.

"What is it?" She growled roughly turning over.

"The sun is up."

"No, duh."

"No, it's_ really_ up." I commented still shaking her.

She popped up and squinted to look out of the small hole to outside. The sun was nearly at it's peak. "Shit." She muttered under her breath.

I turned to her. "Let's get going, if we fly fast we'll make the end-"

"Class is over, we missed it." She said smoothing out her hair.

"Class ends at noon."

"Take another look," She sad stretching. "It's not before noon, it's after noon."

I groaned and smacked my forehead. "Shit is right."

"The guys are going to harass us about this." Astrid sighed, re-doing her braid. "They're probably out looking for us, let's get out of this tree before they do."

I nodded and started to pull my boots on. "How fast do you think, they'll..?"

"Hiccup! Astrid!" A voice called out faintly.

Astrid laughed. "Does that answer your question?"

"Just about." I said sarcastically.

We quickly laced up our boots and flew towards the voices where we met up with Snotlout, Fishlegs, the twins, and Heather. Heather looked especially concerned. "Where were you?" She asked as soon as I was in ears reach. "I was so worried."

Astrid eyed me and I felt very uncomfortable, I quickly grabbed Heather's arm and pulled her off to the side. "Excuse us."

"Do you even know all the things swirling in my mind when I heard you didn't show up for class?" Heather asked, obviously frazzled. "At first I thought you ran away, then when I knew Astrid was gone too, I thought she had killed you or-"

"Why would you think that?" I asked, an eyebrow raised.

Heather paused awkwardly. "It's just, when you're worried, silly thing pop into your head, that's all."

"Well, Astrid wouldn't do that." I lied, given all the things I had kept from her, even I wasn't sure what she would be capable of. "Besides, you don't need to worry about me, I can handle this."

She grabbed my arm. "You can handle a war? It's official you know, here and in Berk."

"I know that." I said ribbing my arm out of her hands. "I said I could handle it, so let me handle it."

Heather frowned at me. "Are you going to tell them?"

"Well,"

"Are you going to tell _her_?" I didn't answer. "How long do you think you can keep this up?"

"Leave it alone, Heather." I snapped before joining the group.

Fishlegs gave me a puzzled look. "You alright?"

"Fine."

"I bet he's more than fine." Tuffnut said snickering.

Ruffnut continued, "So, what were you guys playing hooky for anyway?"

Astrid laughed awkwardly. "We slept in."

"Both of you?" Snotlout asked frowning.

"Both of us." She said, crossing her arms.

"Whatever," Snotlout snorted. "I got a new rod yesterday. Let's go fishing before I have to go home."

Tuffnut and Ruffnut nodded in agreement.

"Stormfly isn't feeling so good right now, and Toothless fell asleep again," Astrid said sighing. "You guys go ahead I think I'll stay and watch them."

Heather sat onto a log beside Astrid. "Actually I think I'll stay too."

"Maybe I should-" I began.

Ruffnut grabbed my arm. "Noo way, fisherboy, you can't ditch us this time."

I felt a awful feeling in the pit of my stomach but I let it go and went fishing anyway. It was a long and boring fishing trip, when everyone decided to head home I was exhausted, and the long walk back to where Astrid and Toothless were was tiring and lonely. I wished we hadn't gone so far down the river or that I had decided to wake Toothless to come with us but I shoved the thought away.

As I neared the spot where I had left Toothless, I head hasty foot steps crunching through the leaves. Heather's silhouette came running through the forest and she nearly ran into me. "What's the matter?" I asked her.

Heather looked at me with an extremely frightening expression. "It's nothing, I just need to get home." She said before rushing away. My heart beat quickened and I started to run forward. Panic over-flowed and when I finally got close enough to see Toothless, Stormfly and Astrid illuminated by a near by fire I relaxed. Heather was right, worry does make our minds run to crazy places. "Astrid," I sighed. "I'm glad you're okay, I thought something had happened to you, since Heather was- well, it doesn't really matter." I chuckled.

Astrid's back was facing me and I could hear her heavy breathing as a got closer. Her shoulders moved up and down almost violently as she gasped, almost as if she had been running or something. "Where do you live, Hiccup?" She finally spoke.

I smiled nervously. "What?"

"You heard me."

Astrid still didn't turn to look at me, and it made me nervous. I reached out to touch her shoulder. "Astrid are you-"

Just as my fingers touched the metal of her shoulder pads she whizzed around and slapped my hand away. "Don't touch me!" She yelled in a shrill voice, her face was a mixture of confusion, anger, and more than anything, hurt. "Where do you live?"

I looked and saw the book Heather had 'returned' to me. "What is this about?" I asked shakily.

"Why don't you tell me, Hiccup." Astrid spat throwing the book at me angrily. I caught it before it almost hit my face and it opened in my hands to the first page. The tittle read; A History of Berk.

My head shot up. "Astrid-"

"Where do you live?!" She yelled.

I froze, my heart felt as if it was going to pound out of my chest. "I live," I swallowed dryly. "On Berk."

Astrid immediately started to gasp for air again. "Oh my god," She shook her head in disbelief. "Oh my god."

"Astrid-"

Her head shot up to look at me and she began violently throwing rocks, twigs, and anything she could get her hands on. "I can't believe you kept this from me," She screamed angrily. "You lied to me, you asshole! Why didn't you just tell me, huh?!"

I rose my arms and attempted to defend myself. "I thought you'd be upset, I didn't-"

"Oh, you thought I would be upset?" She said lowering her hands. "How the hell do you think I feel now?!"

"I couldn't tell you." I said, my eyes pleading her.

"Couldn't or wouldn't?"

"Couldn't- both."

Astrid began to pace angrily. "I can't believe you! What, you didn't have enough friends on your own island so you decided to come here?"

"I came to learn to fly." I said taking a slow step towards her.

Astrid shook her head. "I can't believe you, you do realize our people are at war right? You risked your life for, for flying lessons?!" She roared.

"It was the lessons at first, but now it's not about that."

"And what is it about, Hiccup?" She growled at me.

"I-" I felt my throat go dry and the words got caught in my throat.

Astrid glared at me. "You what?"

"I love you."

It was almost as if time had stopped for a moment we both stood silently staring at one another. It was Astrid who broke it, she ran towards me and next thing I knew her fist made contact with my jaw, and I swear I could hear the impact from inside my skull. My back thumped into a near by tree trunk, but she wasn't done and she continued hitting, and scratching at me.

"How can you say that now?!" She yelled. "You lying sack of shit, I can't believe you!" I tried to block her blows with my hands and eventually I managed to grab hold of both her fists. I looked at her face, filled with rage and stained with tears. My heart was pounding, but I pulled her arms forward and kissed her, she kissed back. I was surprised but I was more surprised at how gentle the kiss was. When we pulled back I released her wrists and she slowly backed off, her face was still flowing with tears and her expression was pained instead of angry.

"You lied to me." She said softly. "And now, we're at war, you can't-"

"Astrid, I love you."

"Stop saying it." She snapped at me. I took a step forward. "Stay away from me." She warned. "If someone catches you-"

"I don't care."

"Well I do, asshole!" Astrid let out a ragged breath. "You can't be here, I, I have to go."

I reached out. "Wait, Astrid."

"Stop!" She yelled backing up. "Just, stop." Her eyes pierced me like daggers and I felt wounded. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

I looked into her eyes. "I was afraid of losing you."

Astrid shook her head at me. "And how'd that work out fer you?" She asked bitterly before jumping onto Stormfly and disappearing into the night.


	7. Chapter 7

I felt utterly defeated, and as I made the flight home I wondered if I should even go back to the Academy. I knew Astrid would be mad, but if I didn't go would I never see her again? Would she rat me out if I did? As the questions swirled in my head her last expression kept appearing in my mind. Her angry, hurt, tear-stained expression, every facial expression I never wanted to see her make all at once. I had to go back, but I also couldn't go back, just the thought of never seeing Astrid again made my heart pang.

I landed Toothless on the roof and entered my room through a window to avoid confrontation with my dad, with all the things going on, it was the last thing I needed. Heather drifted into my mind as I sat on the edge of my bed, I remembered her running past me in the woods, and I remembered the book she had given me. I felt anger over take me, she had obviously told Astrid, she never liked me visiting the Berserker islands. The worst part was, that I knew even in my rage that what had happened was my fault, not hers. I shouldn't have gotten to involved with the Berserkers, I shouldn't have gotten so involved with Astrid.

I can't see her anymore, our people are at war, were enemies, and, she doesn't love me, she will never love me. I gripped my bed sheets and clenched my teeth and repeated it in my head, _she will never love me._ I had decided, I wasn't going back, my father had already offered me flying lessons here on Berk, there was no reason to return to the Academy, none at all.

There was a sudden thud on my door. "Hiccup, I need to speak to you."

"It's open." I sighed, loosening my grip on the sheets.

The door slowly opened and my dad lumbered in and stood awkwardly behind me. "Listen, son, I know you aren't as interested in the flying lessons, but,"

"I take them."

"Oh." he cleared his throat. "Well, that's good, we don't have much time to prepare, so it'll be a bit rushed, but you already seem accustom to flying so,"

I turned to look at him. "Prepare for what?"

"For battle." He said as if it were obvious. "We're going to make an attack on one of their islands, we need all the men we can get. Your training starts tomorrow."

He turned to leave, but I stood up abruptly. "Witch island?"

"Well, I believe were going for the second largest one, I can;t remember what they called it."

"The second mainland." I breathed.

His face lit up. "Yes, that's what it is!"

The door shut softly behind my dad, it was probably the first conversation we had had that didn't end in a fight for ages, but I felt worse than I had ever felt after even the worst arguments. I had convinced myself not to get involved, I wasn't going to go back, I had made up my mind. It all crumbled underneath me, I couldn't ignore this, I had to tell Astrid. I winced at the thought at her pale lifeless body, the thoughts of being captured and kill suddenly seemed like nothing when the image of a dead Astrid floated in my mind. That was it, I was going back.

I went to my new flying class as planned, I knew my dad would never let me join the forces if I wasn't properly trained. I had to go with the troops in case I was unable to reach Astrid in time, I flew through the class with ease, no pun intended, and as soon as I was done I immediately started the flight to the Academy. I was lucky, as I flew over the island I could hear the ending bell ring and the crowds of students flooded out of the school.

I quietly landed Toothless behind the school and crept towards the front of the school. I scanned through the crowd of people a spotted Astrid saying bye to the gang and walking towards Stormfly. Before she could get mounted I grabbed her arm and pulled her behind Stormfly, she immediately flushed with anger and promptly gave me a hard slap across the face. "How can show your face around here?!" She roared.

"I'm trying not to."

"Do you realize you could be killed? For all you know I could've informed Dagur about you already!"

"Did you?"

Astrid scowled at me. "Of course not, I didn't think you'd come back."

"Astrid,"

"No." She said sternly. "You can't come here anymore, it's won't end well."

I looked into her eyes. "Don't you care if we ever see each other again?"

"Don't I care?" Astrid repeated clearly feeling insulted. "You want to know what I care about? I care if you're captured and killed for trespassing. Don't you get it Hiccup? We're at war."

"Astrid I need to tell you something." I pleaded.

"No, Hiccup. You've told me quite enough."

"My father is planning an attack." I quickly blurted as she turned away.

"Your father?" Astrid said turning back to look at me. "Who's your father?"

I cursed under my breath. "He's- uuugh, I should have told you."

"Who's your father?" She repeated.

"I didn't even think about it."

"Who's your father?" Astrid said for the third time her tone getting more and more angry.

I sighed. "He's, he's the Chief."

Astrid looked at me bug-eyed and in disbelief. "The Chief? The _Chief_ Chief?"

"Yeah..." I muttered.

"Oh my god." She began to back away from me. "This just makes everything worse."

"I should have told you that day, I wasn't thinking straight, I forgot,"

Astrid glared at me. "You_ forgot_?"

"Look, that's not what's important right now."

"No, that's _exactly_ what's important right now." She interjected. "If Dagur find out he'll, I don't even know what he'll do, but it won't be good I can tell you that."

I pulled on her wrist. "Listen to me!" She stared at me. "Did you hear what I said? My father is planning an attack, on the second mainland, so a week from now you can't be there. Go to the academy or one of the smaller islands, I don't care, just not at home."

Astrid ripped her wrist from my grasp. "Are you telling me to hide? To run? I'm not a coward."

"I need to know you'll be safe."

"Dagur may be a mad man, but that's my home your talking about, I will fight by my family's side."

I felt so helpless, and I couldn't pull my thoughts away from the image of a dead Astrid. "You could be killed."

"So could you." She replied her face suddenly looking more sad than anything else. "By coming here you're putting both our lives at risk, how do you know I won't tell someone about this attack?"

"Tell anyone you want," I said sternly. "I know you'll never love me, but,"

"What?" Astrid face filled with disgust. "You're a fool, Hiccup."

Her eyes pierced me like daggers and a horrible fear from the bottom of my stomach began to take over. "I'm going to be there, I'll protect you." I tried to sound confidant but on the inside I was afraid of the war to come. If we both survived to love another day I knew i wouldn't be able to give her up, I was stupid to think I could. I loved Astrid, I wasn't going to give her up.

Astrid shook her head. "You should've never come here, Hiccup."

"I'll fight for you." I said, feeling both afraid and courageous. "Because you're worth it."

"Our people-"

"Screw them." My emotions seemed to gush out of me. "Screw my people and screw your people, I don't give a crap about this damn war, and I don't think you do either. Does anyone even remember why we started fighting in the first place?" Astrid remained silent. "I know there's nothing I can say to make you run, but just, take care of yourself."

"You know I will."

I nodded reluctantly and crept off to find Toothless, a war was going to break out, whether I liked it or not.


	8. Chapter 8

With the impending war above my head the flying classes I had so desperately been fighting for seemed dull and unimportant. I believed in my flying abilities, it was my fighting abilities that worried me, after all the flashy words I had used I was unsure about if I could really protect Astrid. I had never been the athletic type so upon having to make the decision of what weapon to take with me, I really had no idea what to do.

I picked up a small dagger off of the table and inspected it before slipping it into my pocket.

"You sure you don't want the hammer?" My dad said slapping me on the back with a chuckle. "It's the same as what I have."

I shook my head. "I wouldn't be able to pick it up anyway."

"Well, I guess, I'll,"

"Yeah. See you there." I said, then he gave me a nod then flew off on his dragon.

This was it, in less than an hour I would battle the second mainland. The anticipation felt so awful I swore the real thing couldn't be much worse, the fear of losing and the fear of winning both weighed heavily on me. In all honesty I couldn't tell who would win, neither sounded appealing in the slightest. Deep down I hoped it would be a tie though I knew it wouldn't happen.

From outside I could hear the hustle and bustle of men and women bringing out their dragons and weapons, getting ready for battle no doubt. I sighed a heavy breath, I couldn't wait any longer, it was time to go. I shut the door behind me and climbed up onto of Toothless, we flew to the gathering area where all the villagers had gathered to say farewell to those of us who were leaving for the battle. My father was perched up on a high rock giving a speech, a speech I honestly could care less about. When he finished there was a loud horn sound and off went flying in a giant hoard of dragons over the sea, it didn't take long to spot the Berserkers islands. As we got closer it was clear to me that Astrid had not told anyone about the attack, it was silent on the island. There were a few people walking about, doing their morning chores, they were the first to notice.

The attack began before I had even noticed, many of the men began attacking while I flew straight to where Astrid's house was. My father called out to me. "Son! stay airborne while the older men take to the ground."

I looked over at him. "Let me take the ground."

"No."

"Dad,"

"I said no Hiccup, you're skilled at flying but you are not prepared for battle. Only in a emergency will you land."

I didn't reply, he would never give me permission, but if it came to it, he couldn't stop me from landing. The area around Astrid's home soon became chaos, filled with men a women yelling, fighting, and running about. The chaos made it difficult to spot her, and I couldn't get to close to the ground or else I would be shot down by archers. Then I saw near the entrance to the woods Astrid fought two men wielding axes, even Astrid, who was a great warrior, was still a young woman, and struggled to keep up with the two men. I began to fly downwards towards her.

"Hiccup, what are you doing?" I could hear my father call after me, but I ignored him and continued towards her.

Astrid hit one in the head, knocking him to the ground, but it only gave the other an opening to tackle her to the ground. I knew if I fired a blast at the man I would also hit Astrid while the rolled and tussled on the ground, so I landed Toothless and quickly pulled out my dagger. I stabbed the man in the back and he roared out in pain and turned to punch me, his fist knocked the wind out of my stomach and I tumbled to the ground, groaning in pain. He leap onto of me and continued to throw punches at me. Astrid hastily grabbed her axe off of the ground and, still gasping for air stuck it into his back. This caused him to choke and gurgle before flopping onto the ground beside me.

I was in agony, I had bruises scattered across my face and probably my torso as well. "I'm pathetic." I managed out.

"Don't say that." Astrid warned through heavy breaths. "You're not pathetic."

"Every time I try to save you, you end up saving me."

She sat down beside me, and looked into my eyes. "There are many guys willing to beat someone up for the girl they love, it takes a real man to get beaten up for her."

I laughed weakly. "Why didn't you let him kill me? It'd probably be easier for you."

"Don't say that either." Astrid growled angrily. "How can you be so stupid?"

"Insults, thanks."

Astrid rose her hand as if to slap me, her eyes burning with anger. "Don't you get it?" She said angrily lowering her hand.

I looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. "Get what?"

Astrid's hands moved towards me and I winced, thinking she would hit me, but instead she pulled my face towards hers and kissed me. My lips still hurt but I kissed back anyways, and I put my hands behind her head. When she finally pulled back, she stared at me intensely. "I obviously love you, you asshole."

I almost didn't know what she said at first it took a good five seconds for my brain to process the words she had said. "What?" I managed to choke out.

"I won't say it again."

"Astrid,"

"Please," Astrid said. "I still don't know what I should do about it, but, you deserve to know. I know I've been a bitch lately."

I shook my head so hard it hurt. "No, it was my fault, I should have told you. I should have trusted you."

"Hiccup, you know this will never end well, right?"

"That's not true." I insisted. "I've thought about just leaving. I'd give everything up, I swear I would."

Astrid looked away. "You can't, I can't, we have families. And you, you're going to be the chief."

"You think I care about all that? because I don't." I looked into her blue eyes and I tucked a stray hair behind her ear. "I don't want to live a life without you."

Astrid put her hand over mine. "Where would we even go?"

"It doesn't matter." I could hear the faint sound of my father calling out to me though the battle cries. I looked up to see where he was but the sky was too crowded. "We can't stay here much longer."

"I don't know, Hiccup." Astrid said looking down. "To just leave."

I looked back towards her and nodded. "I understand." I felt a pang of guilt in my chest, I felt as if I had been pressuring her all along and just didn't know it. I shifted my legs to stand up, but Astrid grabbed my arm.

"I'll go."

"I don't want to force you."

"You're not, I just," She sighed. "I don't want either of us to have to risk our lives just to see each other. I'm tired of fighting."

I smiled at her. "Me too."

We both stood up and she pulled me into a big hug that I quickly responded to, I held her tightly for what seemed liked minutes when I felt her jerk suddenly. I opened my eyes and pulled back. "Astrid?"

Astrid's face looked weak and her knees began to buckle, I caught her before she fell and in my horror I saw an arrow sticking out of her back. "Hiccup get away from her!" I heard my father's voice and I looked up to find him flying above us a bow in hand.

I slumped down to the ground and lifted Astrid's face. "Astrid? Astrid?" My voice trembled and tears blurred my vision. "Wake up, please." I could feel my heart thumping so hard that it rang in my ears. My fingers shook so violently that I couldn't properly hold her face anymore, I prayed that I was dreaming, I wasn't dreaming.

Her blood was everywhere.

**Hello! Thank you for all of your support, I feel like maybe I should write authors notes regularly but I never seem to have much to say. Anyway, moving on to the important stuff; I am going to reach the end of my initial plans soon, I began this without knowing how long it would be or how it would end. So if there are any suggestions, ideas or just something you really want to see happen write a comment or send me a PM. If I do end up using someones idea I will credit them for it unless they don't want me to. Please do not feel obligated, if I do not get any suggestions I will continue to the best of my ability and the speed of my postings will probably slow down a bit regardless. A BIT; I try my best to keep speedy postings because I know the pain of waiting to know what happens.**

**Thanks again, and I hope to hear some great ideas!**


	9. Chapter 9

Her blood stained my clothes as I held onto her desperately, I could see her chest heaving up and down violently and her eye brows furrowed and scrunched up in pain. My tears continued flowing and I stroked her face with my hand, quietly repeating her name, begging her to open her eyes. My dad landed his dragon and leapt off of his dragon and stormed over to me, reaching forward to grab Astrid's arm, before he could I pulled out my dagger and pointed it at him menacingly. "Don't touch her." I warned.

He looked at me, both confused and angry. "What is the meaning of this? She's one of them, let go of her."

"Don't touch her." I repeated darkly. "Don't you dare touch her."

He sighed. "She's going to die, Hiccup, you-"

"No she won't!" I snapped. "We have to save her."

My dad chuckled slightly and raised an eye brow. "What on earth are you talking about? We have enough of our own injured to take home, we're not taking her, she's the enemy." He looked around at the dragons whizzing over our heads. "The main land will be sending reinforcements any time now, we have to go."

"I won't leave her."

"Hiccup-"

"I won't."

He raised his hands in frustration. "What is this about? How do you know this girl? What was she doing to you just now?"

"She wasn't doing anything, she was hugging me, how could you shoot her in the back?" I roared at him.

"I thought she was attacking you."

"Well you thought wrong!"

My dad shook his head. "Hiccup, this isn't up for debate," he approached me but I jerked the knife at him, warning him not to approach. "We're not taking her, she's a berserker, you don't know what she'll do."

"Dad, I love her."

My dad stood for a moment in shock, taken aback by what I had said. "Is this what you've been doing? Sneaking around and having secret love affairs?"

"I won't leave without her." I continued shaking my head, fresh tears falling from my face. "You can't make me."

He looked nervously to the skies again, then back to me. "Fine, go then, take her to the house I'll bring medical aid."

I didn't hesitate, I immediately picked her up as carefully as I could then climbed onto Toothless and flew off, headed for home. As I flew I nervously stole glances at her rising and falling chest, praying to Odin and Thor that she would continue breathing. As soon as we made it back to the house I rushed up to my room and laid her face down on my bed, her wound fully visible. I winced at it and wavered nervously, should I take the arrow out? How else can I stop the bleeding? Suddenly I heard a crash from outside, and hasty footsteps rushing upstairs, I grabbed and dagger and held it out just as Heather burst through the door.

"I heard what happened." She said gasping for air, and taking a step forward. "I can help-"

"Don't!" I warned. "You never liked Astrid, why should I trust you?"

Heather looked to her feet. "I'm sorry Hiccup, I was trying to protect you. I care about you, and I know you care about her, so I'll help." She looked over at Astrid. "You need to pull the arrow out. Then you need to put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding."

I hesitated, but I didn't have many other options, so I got to work. To my relief, Astrid was still breathing, so I grasped my hand around the arrow and yanked it out with one pull. Astrid cried out in pain, breathing even more heavily. Then I ripped pieces of my sheets of off my bed and pressed it down onto her wound. I turned to Heather, "Okay, now what?"

Heather looked around. "Does your have any alcohol in the house?"

"In the kitchen!"

She nodded and ran out of my room. Astrid's eye were barely open, but made me feel relief anyway. "Astrid, you're going to be okay."

"Hiccup," She murmured without finishing.

Heather burst back into my room with a bottle grasped securely in both her hands. She slowly move my hands and the cloth away from the wound then carefully pour the alcohol onto Astrid's back causing her to scream out in pain again, and tightly grip the blankets of my bed. Heather then turned to me. "We need bandages."

I nodded and quickly began to rip up my sheets into long strips, just then my dad arrive with the medical aid he had promised and Astrid was properly bandaged. After her wounds had been looked after I stayed at her bedside the entire night in fear that someone would try to hurt her if I left. I tried to stay awake but eventually I fell asleep, my head resting on the edge of my bed.

"Hiccup." I heard a voice calling out to me and I could feel a gentle hand brushing the stray hairs away from my face. My eyes slowly opened and I saw Astrid still lying on the bed facing me.

I jerked out of my sleep and immediately took her hand in mine. "Astrid, you're-"

"I'm fine," She reassured. "You're okay right?"

I nodded tightening the grip her hand. "I'm sorry, this was all my fault." I buried my face into the bed. "It was my dad, he was the one who shot you."

"It's alright."

"How can it be alright?" I nearly shouted. "You were right, Heather was right, what I was doing was putting myself and all of you in danger. It's because of me you got shot, I just wish it had been me."

"Don't say that, I'm still alive." Astrid tightened her grip as well, and smiled at me. "You're worth an arrow in the back."

I chuckled weakly, but my frown quickly returned. "It's just, if something had happened and you had-"

"I'm alive, Hiccup."

"I know, I just can't help thinking about it, I don't even know what I would have done."

"Does your dad know?"

"I think so," I sighed. "He doesn't know how it started, but he knows."

"And he's alright with it?"

I licked my lips. "I, I'm not sure, I refused to leave without you, I don't know what he's planning right now. I'm afraid of what he's planning."

"You should talk to him."

"I can't leave your side, what if someone-"

"I can watch her." We both turned to see Heather standing by the door. "I'll won't let anyone do anything, I promise."

I reluctantly looked over at Astrid and she nodded back at me, "Alright." I said kissing her on the cheek, then I let go of her hand and headed towards the door. I stopped at the doorway and turned back to look at Astrid. "Get some sleep."


	10. Chapter 10

"You need to tell me the truth."

I sighed heavily and grabbed a chair, sitting down across the fire pit from him as he nudged the logs around. "I know." There was a short pause and he looked over at me. "You have to promise not to hurt her."

"I'm won't promise anything." He snapped, "I'm your father, you shouldn't be keeping secrets from me."

I stood abruptly from my chair. "Maybe if you were doing your job as a father I wouldn't have felt it was necessary to keep secrets! Why would you want to hurt her, she's just a villager, she won't do anything!"

"You don't know that Hiccup, she could be deceiving you, for all I know-"

"You have no right to say that!" I growled pointing an accusing finger at him. "You've never even spoken a single word to her, don't you trust me at all? I'm not a child you don't get to choose who I spend my time with."

"If they're a Berserker I do!" My dad flew out of his chair. "I don't know what we'll do with her but she can't stay here."

"She's severely injured, you can't just throw her out!" My dad stubbornly sat back down and refused to answer. "Did you believe me when I said that I loved her? Or do you honestly not care about me at all."

His head snapped up to look at me. "How can you say that? I'm just trying to protect you."

"I tell you everything, just, don't do this."

"Fine." He gestured to my chair and I sat in response. "Talk."

"It started on the day you refused to let me train to fly my dragon, I was, unhappy that day, I wasn't in the best state of mind, and I came up with a plan. I planned to secretly attend a flying school on the Berserker islands, that's where I met Astrid, and later through other friends, I met Heather."

"You- _what_?!"

"I know it was stupid." My head lowered. "I was angry."

My dad cursed under his breath, "Do you realize how dangerous that could have been for you?"

"Trust me, I've been told."

"How long did you attend?"

"Until about a week before the attack."

"I gave you the lessons before that, why did you keep going back?"

"I-" I paused. "I didn't want to stop seeing Astrid."

My dad shook his head as he lowered his face into his hands. "You're my son, Hiccup, I want to protect you."

"She saved my life, twice." My dad looked up at me. "I just want to do the same for her, you must understand that."

My dad stood and placed a hand on my shoulder, engulfing it. "I do." He smiled at me. "I guess, you're really not a child anymore. If she means this much to you, she's welcome here."

He kept his promise, no one bothered him and few people were even aware that she was a Berserker. Many of the doctors that came to check on her told us she was extremely lucky because the arrow didn't hit anything vital and it didn't break any bones. As Astrid's back healed she became gradually more active, and to my surprise she got along with my dad quite well, she had more in common with my dad than I did. Things started to feel comfortable again, it was the first time I felt at home in a long time, I knew it couldn't last though.

"I think it's time I went home, Hiccup." My hands froze and I immediately stopped undoing her bandages and looked at her face, but I didn't say anything. "It's been more than a week, I don't know where Stormfly is, I don't know how my parents are after the attack. Who knows what happened to the gang, they probably think I'm dead." Astrid turned to face me, and kissed me softly. "It's been good, really good, but I can't stay forever."

"Why not?" I blurted out.

"I'm not from here, Hiccup, they'll never accept me."

"They will," I insisted. "This war has nothing to do with you, my father is on your side, _I'm_ on your side."

Astrid smiled at me, and quickly engulfed me into a big bear hug. "Thank you, I'll come back."

I quickly pushed out of the hug to look at her. "What do you mean?"

"I still have to return, even for only one day, I have to find Stormfly, and check on everyone." She touched my cheek with her hand. "I'll be fine."

I shook my head. "What if someone saw you leaving with me? As you said; you've been gone for over a week, for you to just show up..."

"I have to do it Hiccup." Astrid said. "My parents are probably worried sick, I have to at least tell them what's going on."

"I'll go with you."

"No." She quickly replied. "I'll be fine, really."

"Astrid-"

"You'll be in more danger than I will."

I held onto her hand. "You don't have a dragon, how will you get there?"

She sighed heavily and her head lowered. "You have to wait in the forest, where no one can find you, we don't know if they know who you are yet."

"What if-"

"What if they know who you are?" She interjected. "I can take care of myself, Hiccup."

I nodded at her, and continued to undo her bandages. "You're right." Astrid's wounds were practically gone, and i brushed my fingers across the faded scar.

"You're tickling me." Astrid said laughing slightly.

"It'll scar."

"Do you think I look ugly with it?"

"Of course not." I insisted.

Astrid shrugged. "Then it doesn't matter, hey-" She lifted my face up. "I'm healed now, that's all that matters. We should go today."

"Today?"

"It's still early, we only need an hour or two."

I shook my head. "I don't know, we shouldn't be rushing into this."

"The longer we wait, the more suspicious they'll be about where I had gone." She said pulling her shirt down over her stomach and her healed wound. "I just want to be done with this."

I picked up the used bandages and threw them into the waste basket. "Maybe."

"The sooner we do this, the sooner we're finished with all this."

We didn't say much after that, I just nodded and we prepared our weapons and climbed onto Toothless, it was still bright out so we had to fly low so we wouldn't be caught. The flight was longer than usual, we took a more hidden route to avoid being spotted and by the time be made it to the second mainland it was already the afternoon. I left Toothless hiding in a tree by the coast where no one would find him, as Astrid and I hiked our way through the forest up to where the town was.

"Alright." Astrid said stopping. "You should wait here, the town isn't much further."

I nodded reluctantly. "I'll stay in the fort, it should be just down that path. No one will spot me there."

Astrid kissed me on the lips and looked into my eyes. "Thanks."

I smiled at her. "For what?"

"Everything, just everything."

I pulled her close to me and we hugged for what seemed like forever, then as I opened my eyes to release the embrace, I saw a group of men rushing towards us, weapons readied. Terror filled me and I quickly grabbed Astrid by the neck and started to pretend I was attacking her. Astrid looked at me with a socked expression. "Let go, what are you doing?" She hollered at me.

I continued trying to attack her until the men caught up with us and separated me from her. They grabbed my arms and looked at my face, one of the men looked up. "This is him." From behind the men, Dagur emerged.

He laughed eerily. "I heard they spotted you're dragon, what are you doing here Hiccup?" I kept my mouth shut. "You didn't travel all the way here just to attack a little girl did you?"

Astrid stared at me with frantic eyes. "He- he was trying to kidnap me, to be a hostage!" She accused, pointing a finger at me.

"Hostage?" Dagur leered. "She's just a girl, you think she'd make a good hostage?"

"He'll make a better hostage." Astrid suggested.

Dagur looked over at Astrid for a moment, then turned back to me. "That's not such a bad idea, take him back to the mainland, we'll lock him up for now." I could see the relief in Astrid's face, but she was still afraid and we stared into each others eyes as the men dragged me away. "Run along." Dagur said to Astrid, and I watched as she ran off into the town.

**Hello! Not sure how many more chapters will come but this story should be coming to and end soon, so I'm building up steam for a new story to write, probably something in a modern setting. I want to know what you guys want to see, my main three ideas are something set in the future, something to do with superheros, or something in a high school. Please tell me what you'd like me to write about in the comments or via PM I'd love to hear what you're interested in reading about, it will for sure be Astrid X Hiccup! thanks for reading! :)**


	11. Chapter 11

I was lucky, Astrid had prevented any harm from coming to me, temporarily anyway. The cell was extremely dark and smelled something awful, there was no window so I was unable to tell how long I was in there for. I probably would guess around three days but quite honesty it felt a lot longer than that. With nothing to do worry was all I did, by what I thought was the third day I was wracked with worry, for Astrid, for my father, for Toothless, and for almost anything that crossed my mind, witch was pretty much everything.

Then a loud smashing sound split through the silence, I had heard almost nothing the entire time I was in captivity the echo felt like if would deafen me. The door came flying open and I saw exactly who I wanted to see. "Astrid!"

"Shh" She hushed me with a stern look. "Quiet, follow me." Her orders were direct and short, as she lead me in a hurried pace through the winding halls. I had so many questions to ask the wait was agonizing. The last door she cracked open flooded the hall with light and I winced and turned away quickly. Astrid hastily grabbed my arm and pulled me roughly behind her.

Once we were safely in the cover of trees she spoke, still walking at a brisk pace. "I'm sorry I took so long." Astrid looked at me briefly with guilt clearly in her eyes. "I had to convince the guards I was one of the servants, most of them didn't believe me."

I shook my head. "Are you alright? Did you find Stormfly?"

"She's fine."

"And your parents?"

Astrid stopped walking. "They're not fine."

I stopped abruptly and paused for a moment before speaking. "I'm so sorry, it's my fault."

"No it's not."

"I could have stopped this, I should have stopped my dad but I didn't, It's all my fault."

"No it's not." Astrid said sternly. "You didn't star the war Hiccup. Dagur did."

"He's your Chief."

"That doesn't mean I have to like him, and it doesn't mean I have to agree with everything he does." Astrid snapped back at me. "As it turns out, I've been fighting for the wrong side."

I gave her a puzzled expression. "What do you mean?"

"Listen Hiccup." She said, I could hear she was fighting back tears. "Were in trouble, we need to get off of this island."

"What's going on?"

Astrid sighed heavily. "Dagur is forcing everyone into his army, and stealing dragons from the villagers in order to keep up in the war." She glanced around the woods nervously. "I managed to get Stormfly back from them, but once they notice she's gone they'll be after me too."

"Where's Stormfly? Did you see Toothless?" I asked.

"They're at the fort, with the gang."

I furrowed my brows. "The gang?"

"I bumped into them when I was sneaking around to get Stormfly, they were trying to their dragons back too." Astrid began walking again and I followed after her. "I told them that there was another island we could hide on, they are waiting to leave."

"Wait, what do you mean by another island?" I asked. "You mean Berk?"

"I'm sorry, I know I should've asked first, but I didn't know what else to tell them," Astrid's voice cracked. "A lot of the adults didn't make it, Hiccup. I had to tell them something."

I grabbed her hand and she stopped walking again. "You're all welcome on Berk, I guarantee it."

Astrid smiled at me for the first time since we reunited. "Thank you." We kissed, but the kiss didn't last much longer.

"There they are!" We were interrupted by loud cheering from above us, Snotlout, the tiwns, Fishlegs, and even Heather were all gathered up in the top of the tree fort we had built.

"Are we ready to go yet?" Fishlegs said.

"So," Ruffnut said. "Where are we going?"

Snotlout nodded vigorously. "Yea, where?"

"It better be nice." Tuffnut said chuckling.

"I think I know where we're going." Heather said smiling.

Astrid and I looked at each other, then back to them. "Berk."

It took a little convincing, but the gang eventually agreed after we told them what had been going on all along. We hadn't managed to save everyone, but we managed to save our dragons. After returning to Berk I had even more convincing to do, but soon my father agreed and we started accepting refugees from the Berserker islands. With some help from the gang and the approval of the chief we opened a brand new dragon academy.

The Dragon Academy

End.

**I'm really sorry for the delay. :(((**** I have been extremely busy with a lot of school stuff lately, but here it is! YAY I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you for reading and thank you for your patience for the final chapter. :)  
**


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